Butter or no Butter

That will be an interesting experiment. For me, it's butter all the way, and cream and...

 

Going to be rather controversial here and say I don't think you need to worry at all about cholesterol. Certainly not the total cholesterol metric which is actually pretty meaningless. What was your lipid breakdown?

You need cholesterol to function and it is not something to demonise. There is no increased risk of death with ‘raised’ cholesterol levels and actually no credible scientific basis for the belief that consuming saturated fat is bad for your health or your heart. The beliefs comes from historical poor evidence and the push for statins (and other ‘solutions’), which are worth billions to the pharmaceutical industry.

The level of triglycerides in your blood do matter and they need to be low (<1.7) as high levels of triglycerides interfere with insulin processes. High carbohydrate diets leads to higher levels of triglycerides, as the liver converts any unneeded starches (eg from too much fruit) and sugars into triglycerides.

After 6 years eating low carb and natural fats such as butter, getting my HbA1c down to normal levels, my HDL cholesterol levels actually went up and my triG went down. I am very happy about that and feel great!

 

You are brave wise owl butter is my fav fat. I've been actually wondering about having just a spoonful of it. Look forwards (I think) to your results,

 

What are the ingredients in the proactive spread? I'm not sure I like the sound of that haha.
I use butter rather sparingly and use avocado / olive oil and mayo as my primary fats. I do this more because animal fats are not friendly to my bg rather than for cholesterol reasons but since adding loads of avocado and minimizing animal fats my cholesterol was stellar. It was never horrible to begin with but it's perfect now. I worry more about the ratios of my cholesterol than individual components and they're all 'ideal'.

If you like avocado the diet doctor has a recipe for a green been avo thing. I've never tried it but heard it's great. I do chop some on warm veggies and mix it up. I add it to all meals and it also keeps bg low and slow. It can be chopped, sliced, wedged, mashed with just a little sea salt and put on anything or next to anything. The fat make up is perfect. Probably one of the healthies natural fats you can eat!!

 

This 100,000 times...

 

Do make sure that absolutely nothing else changes in your life, especially in the few days before the test, otherwise the experiment will be meaningless!
Sally

 

Is that some margarine-like spread?
In this case, may I suggest to swap butter as much as you can with olive oil or peanut oil?

 

This is what the Tesco's website lists as the ingredients for Flor Pro-Active Buttery (there are different versions, but I suspect the difference is mainly in the flavourings)

Ingredients
Vegetable Oils in varying proportions (56%) (Sunflower, Rapeseed, Palm, Linseed), Water, Plant Sterol Esters (9%), Buttermilk (6%), Salt (1%), Emulsifiers (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Sunflower Lecithin), Acid (Citric Acid), Flavourings (contains Milk), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Vitamin A and D, Colour (Carotenes)

And this is what Zoe Harcombe says on the subject:
http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2013/01/...on-flora-pro-activ-an-unhealthy-relationship/

 

I prefer one ingredient fats. Avocado, butter, olive oil, macadamia nuts, pecans.

However I would not eat peanut oil. Just saying....

 

@Kristin251 Peanut oil is if you like to fry something.
You could also use olive oil (not the extravirgin oil because the flavour and the cost), or sunflower oil to fry.
@Brunneria They're using palm oil that is rich of saturated fats and an extract of plant sterols.

And exactly what are plant sterols? Lovastatin extract from mushrooms? https://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stamets/oyster-mushroom_b_2522084.html

 

Ok so
No pasta
No bread
No tropical fruit
For me no legumes
No root vegtables
No grains
**** it!!!! I'm having butter.

 

Sounds like a toxic sludge best avoided.. go for real butter every time..

 

The figure that matters (if in fact any of them matter) is the ratio between your triglycerides and your HDL.
Divide the trigs by the HDL to find it. Yours is 0.54. That is IDEAL. (It needs to be under 0.87 in UK measurements)

I would like to add that your original total cholesterol of 3.8 was too low in my opinion.

Butter is a natural real food that has been eaten since cows came to be. Those spreads are completely manufactured and contain nasty vegetable oils, in particular sunflower oil. I eat it, but I do prefer it to come from grass fed cows.

By the way, from all those results you posted, you appear to be in excellent health.

 

Why is it that when the original poster has said that they have made an adult decision to try a time limited experiment in order to asess a particular issue of interest and importance to them, a number of replies are from people saying why they wouldnt do it and in not very subtle ways implying that the poster has made a foolish or ill informed decision - I dont see wiseowl as either of those things.
Seems to be that when it comes to this forum, the more it changes the more it stays the same

 

IF I'm SEARING something as I never fry, I use butter. I only need a small amount and lamb chops or steak is the only time I do that as far as I'm remembering. I use a cast iron pan for those to get a good sear, then I throw it all in the oven and roast it the rest of the way. I do more roasting or sautéing. Or sometimes broiling. When I sauté I use a little extra virgin olive oil on low heat. I have ceramic non stick pans for steaming or sautéing so I don't need much fat in the pan. I prefer to top it once it's done.
I just think their many healthier fats than peanut oil and since my diet and fuel source is 80%!fat I like to get it from high octane foods.

If you like it and it works for you have at it!!! It's nice to find things that work for us

 

I in no way implied the OP was foolish.
The question in the title of the post was "butter or no butter". With what I thought was a witty response, I implied that for me, i am not giving up butter.

 

Just wondered which brand of butter is from grass fed cows as I have looked for that on packs of butter but have never found it

 

Kerrygold.

http://www.kerrygold.co.uk/home/products/

There maybe others.